RunnerGrad

Well, my UofT status finally changed to Decision Made, two weeks after I received notification of my admission via email! I've also now been asked to provide official (paper) transcripts to UofT, as I had previously just uploaded the scans of my transcripts. Was also accepted off the waitlist to my second choice program, but after some discussion with my husband, I'm going to stick with UofT.

I make time. I schedule in exercise just like I schedule everything else. I also find I'm much more productive if I take a break, do something active, and then return to work or studying afterwards. Exercise is good for memory, concentration, mental health, stress relief, etc., as well as having so many physical benefits. So exercise helps me to work for effectively and efficiently. I'm also a group fitness instructor, so having times where I absolutely have to be there to teach a class, unless I'm ill or injured, helps on those days where my motivation might be lacking. When I teach a class, it's not my workout, since I'm focused on the participants, but I still get in some exercise just by leading the class, even if it's not as intense a workout as I might get on my own. Fitness is a way of life for me. I can't imagine doing without. So, like everything else that is important to me, I make the time. The payoff in terms of improved mental and physical health is enormous. Oh, it's helps that my husband and I enjoy running together and lifting weights together. So workout time becomes us time.

Exercise. Running. School. Studying.

Congratulations to everyone who has received offers in the past few days! I hope I will see some of you at UofT in the Fall.

If you want to be an RD, you need to complete a dietetic internship, so whichever one lets you do that in the easiest manner.

It's spelled GUELPH. Also, as I posted before, candidates could submit their documents to Guelph until March 15th. So they obviously haven't made any decisions yet, since they've only had all the documents for all the applicants as of yesterday. So for Guelph you are going to have to wait a bit longer. They can't magically review everyone's documents in one day, or even in one week. All of this is clearly indicated on Guelph's website.

Reality TV Fast food Mayonnaise Cheese slices/processed cheese Pepperoni pizza Harry Potter

Well, just goes to show you that everyone is different. There are many, many people who commute into Toronto from as far west as Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo. That's why the GO trains are full of people doing those commutes on a daily basis. Also, my husband and I looked at the places for rent in Toronto before we ended up buying our house out where we are. We absolutely could not afford to live anywhere that would meet our needs. Like I said before, a small, one bedroom apartment would have cost us more in rent than our current mortgage does on a three bedroom semi-detached. As for renting versus owning, let's just say that when you've been renting for 20 some years, owning your own place begins to have a great deal of appeal. Also, we aren't worried about any housing market corrections, for a vareity of reasons. If someone is looking to move again in the near future, however, I would certainly suggest some caution. Besides, the commute on the 407 isn't that bad. Neither is the 401 at 0530 to 0600 in the morning, nor at 1500 to 1530 in the afternoon. At least not from where we are, west of Toronto, into the GTA. We don't end up driving into downtown Toronto, however. That is something I wouldn't do. I'll be hopping on the subway line at my husband's workplace, where he conveniently has free parking, and that is right across from a subway station. I've done the commute enough with my husband, when I've been going into Toronto for a variety of things (conferences, interviews, etc.) to know that it really isn't all that bad, for us. Some people might consider it horrible. When my husband doesn't want to drive, due to weather or other reasons, we commute via the GO Train, which is just fine, although it does get crowded the closer you get to Toronto. No doubt for many people the best choice is to rent somewhere in Toronto. It just wasn't the right choice for us. We much prefer living in a small city, west of Toronto, and dealing with the commute. LIke I said, there are thousands of people, just like us, who live in communities served by the GO Train, and who commute into and out of Toronto daily. Of course the closer you get to Toronto (i.e. Oakville), the more expensive the housing becomes, but I know people living out in Georgetown, Guelph, Burlington and Hamiton who do the commute daily. It all depends on what you want. Anywhere west of Toronto that is on one of the GO Train lines, would be my recommendation. Note that the closer you get to Toronto, the more expensive housing becomes, so there's a trade-off between shortening your commute time and housing prices. You can see a map of the GO Train lines here: http://www.gotransit.com/timetables/en/PDF/Maps/01140414/train_map.pdf Georgetown is quite nice. Not too big of a city yet, although bigger than it was 10 years ago. Milton is another community that has seen enormous growth over the past 10 years, as has Burlington. But it really depends on how much of a commute you are willing to deal with. I seem to have a fairly high tolerance for a fairly long commute, as compared to some people!

As others have said, I wouldn't live near York. It is located in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Toronto. However, that's where there was land when the university was founded, and the neighbourhood definitely wasn't as dangerous back then (1959). I'm not a fan of big cities, so despite the fact that I will be attending the University of Toronto, my husband and I are staying in our home, in a smaller city to the west of Toronto, and we'll both commute daily. My husband already commutes to Toronto 4 days a week, and it's only 50-60 minutes for him, by car. I'll have to add about another 20 min on the subway to that. When I lived in Ottawa, however, my commute was 1-1.5 hours on a crowded OC Transpo bus, with one transfer part-way through, so I'm used to a long, annoying commute. So it really depends on what you want. I know some people hate commuting so they are willing to spend a lot of money on rent for a tiny place in Toronto. We decided we would rather have a nice 3 bedroom home with a mortgage that is far less than what we would be paying for a 1 bedroom apartment in Toronto, and that we would put up with the commute.

Public health and community nutrition. Which makes sense, since my undergraduate degree is in nutrition/dietetics, and my MPH will be in community nutrition. The MPH includes the dietetic internship that is required to practice as a registered dietitian. Eventually I would like to end up as an RD doing program development, implementation and evaluation for nutrition and physical activity interventions.

My husband, sister-in-law and brother-in-law all studied at MUN, but for their undergraduate degrees. They all enjoyed their time there. Newfoundlanders tend to be very friendly, and with the oil and gas industry, St. John's is expanding and is no longer the sleepy little town it used to be. Being stuck on the island can be a pain at times - you need to take the ferry to fly if you want to go anywhere outside of Newfoundland. Some things are expensive due to the cost of transport to get things to the island. If you enjoy the outdoors and/or history, Newfoundland is a great place to be. I've visted Terra Nova and Gross Morne National Parks, visited Cape Spear, Signal Hill, and a bunch of other historic sites. Been whale watching and saw a whole pod with some baby whales. St. John's is obviously not a big city like Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, so if you like big city life, than St. John's might not be for you. Otherwise, I think MUN is a great choice.

Congratulations to all those who have received acceptances! If you have multiple ones, good luck deciding between your offers.

Interesting. The one program that waitlisted me specified in their email that they could not provide us any information about our position on the waitlist or potential waitlist movement, and that we should not send any additional materials as they would not be looking at them, etc. So I think it really depends on the university and the program. I was waitlisted by my #2 choice, but then received admission from my #1 choice the next day, so I was able to email my #2 choice back and tell them that they could remove me from the waitlist.

I have a wide variety of interests. I wish I could just be a university student forever and continue to study new and interesting subjects. I just love learning. I'm definitely interested in food science and food technology, which are close to nutrition, but certainly not the same. The science behind the making of beer, wine, cheese, etc. is very cool. I also enjoy studying kinesiology and exercise science. Biomechanics is fascinating. I've taken numerous Classics courses and I'm fascinated by the Roman Republic and Empire, and Ancient Egypt. I enjoy learning languages. I've studied French and German and wish I had time to learn more languages, or to further develop my competencies in French and/or German. I enjoy learing about astronomy and astrophysics, up to a certain point. String theory makes me head hurt. I did take one astronomy elective that I greatly enjoyed, and I like watching "The Universe" and similar types of shows on History/Discovery/National Geographic/Science. The history of science. How discoveries were made. Psychology. Especially health behaviour theories. Why do people continue to do things they know are bad for them, and why don't they do things that they know are good for them? There are more. I could go on and on. I just love learning new things.

Roman Republic. Roman Empire. Ancient Egypt. Glad I had a chance to visit Abu Simbel, Hatshepsut's temple, the Valley of the Kings, the Pyramids and Sphinx, and the Cairo Museum before all the chaos erupted in Egypt.

I will be attending the University of Toronto. Despite the fact that I will have an hour's commute each way (my husband and I own a home and aren't about to move anytime soon, especially not to Toronto, where housing is ridiculously expensive). So, why Toronto? The MPH in Community Nutrition includes a dietetic internship, so I will be eligible to write the CDRE and become a registered dietitian after I complete the program. Additionally, as I hope to work in public health or community nutrition, UofT's program matches my interests. Other reasons why UofT: I won't have to do any foodservice internship placements - all the foodservice competencies for an entry level dietitian are met through coursework and labs. Additionally, all but 6 weeks of the internship placements are in community nutrition and public health, with those 6 weeks devoted to clinical nutrition. This is perfect for me - I get a touch of clinical nutrition, just enough to fulfill the entry level competencies. I have no desire to work in a clinical or hospital setting as a registered dietitian, so although I would endure the 16+ weeks in clinical dietetics that are part of standard internships (had I not been accepted to Toronto), I'm glad I don't have to. At UofT I'll also have the opportunity to take research electives and/or research practica, which will allow me to explore my research interests, without having to commit to a full thesis. So basically, UofT is the perfect program for me. If I was going to design my own MPH program in community nutrition, it would look just like UofT's! The only downside is the commute.

Congratulations to all those who received offers from UBC - MPHBound, styrofoamboots, and IAmMPH!

I was archiving some files on my computer. Checked my email, and the offer was there. Wasn't expecting it, as it arrived the day before they had said offers were going out. I was quite happy that they made decisions a day early, however!

I received my offer via email, but was told my official offer would come via post within the next month. So offers will also arrive via post, but I guess they want to give people the good news via email first, so they aren't left hanging (and perhaps before they accept offers from other programs?) Strangely enough, my application still says "under review" but the offer email is genuine! I checked and double-checked, and I know they were going to release offers by today at the latest (they wanted to get their offers out before the Dietitians of Canada internship offers are made on Monday). ETA: I just received an email from the program again (I emailed them yesterday saying that I intended to accept the offer) so it's real, despite the "under review" on the application website.

Thanks all! And yes, UofT was my top choice, not only due to the fact that it combines the MPH with the dietetic internship, but because the dietetic internship part of the program is mostly focused on community nutrition, with only 6 weeks of clinical nutrition (and no foodservice rotations - the foodservice competencies required for entry-level dietitians are met through coursework and labs). I'm aiming for a career in public health and community nutrition so UofT's program matches my interests goals perfectly. Oh, and for those who like additional stats/details. Held one NSERC USRA and also completed a fourth year honours thesis. So those were my research experiences. While neither was directly related to public health, they both had public health implications. I will be celebrating this weekend!

The email I received when I was waitlisted was far more "gushing" than my acceptance email. Waitlist: "many highly qualified applicants" .... "your application was strong" Acceptance: "Congratulations. We are pleased to inform you..."

I've just been offered admission to the University of Toronto's MPH in Community Nutrition! This is my top choice, so I couldn't be happier!

I've just been offered admission to the University of Toronto's MPH in Community Nutrition! My stats: 95% average last 2 years (90% average including both of my undergraduate degrees), a year experiencing working in public health, two years volunteer experience in community nutrition, finishing up a Dietitians of Canada accredited undergraduate degree in nutrition.

Since people could still apply to Guelph up until March 1st, and since applicants have until March 10th to complete their applications (upload everything to webadvisor) I would be incredibly surprised if Guelph has made any offers yet. I would consider it highly suspicious if anyone suggests that they have received admission to Guelph's MPH for Fall 2014 entry yet. Guelph HAS been handing out MSc and PhD admission decisions, but not MPH. Like I said, they don't even have all the files for all the candidates yet! Source: Currently studying at Guelph.

Agreed. Although there are some Canadian programs that do require the GRE or GMAT. For example, some of the graduate programs is psychology at the University of Guelph require the GRE. I'm just glad none of the programs in my field need it!